Barbarian Witch
The Barbarian Witch 1/20/17 Languages spoken: English, Chinese. Languages read: English, Chinese, Latin. Weaponry: Notable Equipment and Resources: Peacemakers: This pair of .45 caliber revolvers belonged to Charity's father. She stole them when she ran away from home, and they serve as one of her more conventional means of self-defense in the jianghu. Flying Dagger: Hidden up one sleeve, Charity keeps a silver dagger on a silken cord. Though the wounds it inflicts are not terribly severe, it is a convenient way to collect a sample of a foe's blood for sorcerous purposes. Horse: His name is Blacky. She stole him, too. Charity loves this horse more than life itself; she not only would kill a man to protect it, but has done so on multiple occasions. She can communicate with her horse directly via the Animal Tongue talent, and insists that he's actually quite the conversationalists. Or, of course, she could just be crazy. Raven: Like any good witch, Charity has a familiar that does her bidding. She can communicate with it through the Animal Tongue talent, though it can be a bit scatterbrained. It's name is Valefor. Occult collection: Charity keeps a collection of occult talismans, scrolls, books, effigies, and other odds and ends that aid her in her sorcery. Modest Lifestyle: Charity doesn't have much money, but what she has, you don't want to know how she got it. Her comfort levels tend to vary wildly, from sleeping in abandoned graveyards to staying at the homes of court officials whom she has convinced she is the daughter of a foreign ambassador. Talents: Curse of Vile Plague! This curse disrupts the internal functions of another person, inflicting the target with crippling maladies. To inflict the curse, the sorcerer must either have a blood link or be able to make physical contact with the target. Spend a point of Breath and roll Sorcery against the target's Fortitude. If successful, they are effected as though by a poison of the caster's choice; inflicting blindness, paralysis, and so on. For the full list of poisons, see Equipment. Counter: If this talent is used on another Sorcerer who also possesses it, then the target may spend a point of Breath roll Sorcery instead of Fortitude to defend; if successful, then they are able to redirect the curse, either back onto the caster or onto a third party, who then makes a Fortitude roll. Follow the Blood! This divination allows the Sorcerer to track a person they have a blood link to. If the Sorcerer has access to a sample of the target's blood, hair, semen, or other bodily fluids, they can divine the rough distance and direction of that target, as though by following a compass. Activating this talent requires a point of Breath. Counter: a Sorcerer who is being tracked by this spell may attempt a Sorcery check against the caster to either divine the tracker's location, or feed them false information. Steal The Breath! You can steal the vital essence from another, replenishing your own. To enact this power, you must be close enough to touch them. Make a Sorcery check, opposed by their Fortitude; for every success you gain over theirs, you gain one point of Breath, and the target loses one point of Breath, up to their current total (thus, even if you scored five successes over your target, if they only had four points of Breath, you could only steal four). Blood to Blood! By casting this spell, the sorcerer seeks to heal their own wounds by given them to a single target in their line of sight. Spend a point of Breath, and make a Sorcery check opposed by your target's Fortitude; if you are successful, one wound you have suffered disappears from your body and appears on the targets. Thus, if you have been bloodied once and wounded twice, you could transfer one of the wounded conditions with the spell. If you desire, the sorcerer may injure themselves as part of the spell, so long as they are sufficiently armed. In doing so, they may choose the extent of the wound delivered, including lethal ones. However, this carries risk, as should the spell fail, the sorcerer must bear the wound inflicted. Dance of the Dead! You can take command of a dead body, directing it like a puppet. Spend a point of Breath and make a sorcery check; the undead puppet's physical skill totals (Evasion, Melee, Fortitude, and so on) are equal to the results. The sorcerer's full attention is consumed by directing the undead creature, and can only take reactive actions while maintaining the spell. When done with the creature, the Sorcerer must make another sorcery check to dismiss it, with a difficulty equal to the success of the first check. If successful, the body falls inert; if the sorcerer fails, he loses control of the creature, and it runs amok, attacking with primal hatred. If the sorcerer has a sample of a living person's blood, then they may use this talent on a living target. In this case, the target may make a Fortitude check each round to break free of the sorcerer's control. Counter:This ability may also be used to take control of an existing undead creature, such as a vampire or another sorcerer's undead minion. To do so, roll a Sorcery check, opposed by either the controller of the undead's sorcery, or in the case of free-willed undead, the target's Fortitude. Beast Tongue! You can understand the speech of beasts, birds, and creatures of the sea. By spending a point of Breath, you may communicate with animals for the duration of a scene as easily as you would with humans. Make a Shamanism check; add your successes to all Survival checks for the duration of the scene. It should be noted that no one else can understand the animals you are speaking with, so you may look a little odd. Consult the Spirits! You can speak with the spirits of heaven and earth. You can summon the spirits of nature, angels in heaven, and the ghosts of the dead. Roll a Shamanism check, and spent a point of Breath; for every success, you may ask the spirit one question before it leaves. Spirits generally answer honestly, though obtusely. The spirits may appear before you in body, in dreams, or speak through your mouth; in any case, only you can see them, and you may appear a little bit odd when doing this with company around. Cursing the Blade! You can create Cursed weapons, imbuing them with magical abilities. Choose a weapon in your possession – such a sword, a set of bullets, or a set of explosives – and another sorcery talent you possess. The weapon is imbued with the talent, with the effects being as follows: Curse of Vile Plague: ''The weapon is imbued with a poison effect (blindness, burning, etc.), to be chosen when the curse is laid. Those struck by the weapon suffer the poison effect when damaged. ''Follow the Blood: ''You create the proverbial “bullet with someone's name on it.” You curse the weapon to target a specific individual. When you attack that person (and no one else) with the cursed weapon, you can spend a point of Fortune to roll Sorcery along with your attack roll, and take the better of the results. ''Blood to Blood (Life-Drinking): ''The weapon syphons life force back to the wielder. When you inflict a wound, one wound of yours of lesser size is healed (thus, if you inflict a moderate wound, you could heal a light wound, but not a moderate or serious one). ''Blood to Blood (Death-Drinking): ''Instead of syphoning life force from the target, the weapon uses yours to inflict deadlier wounds. All wounds delivered by are increased by one level (from light to moderate, moderate to serious, etc.); however, the user of the weapon suffers a light wound each time it deals damage. ''Steal the Breath: ''The weapon syphons energy away with every strike. Whenever you strike a foe, they lose a point of Breath, and you gain a point of Breath. ''Dance of the Dead: An enemy disabled with the cursed weapon is turned into a puppet under the control of the sorcerer, as per the normal Dance of the Dead rules. Only one magical ability can be imbued into a single weapon, though the sorcerer can create multiple magical weapons. The point of Breath spent to use this talent is permanently imbued into the weapon, and cannot be restored so long as the cursed weapon is lost. For curses that have multiple possible effects (Follow the Blood, Curse of Vile Plague, Blood to Blood) the specific effect must be chosen when the weapon is cursed. Weapons with technological augmentations (such as being armor piercing, incendiary, poisoned, etc.) cannot be also be Cursed. Biography: Charity Goodkind was born the daughter of two Pentacostal missionaries from the United States who came to bring the light of Christ's teaching to the heathen Chinese. They were very, very unsuccessful in this. When she was fourteen, Charity's parents relocated from Oklahoma to China to spread the word of Jesus Christ, along with their daughter and her eight siblings. When she was fifteen, she fled from her parents home, and disappeared into the jianghu. ''By the time she was sixteen, she had joined a secret society of outlaws and troublemakers. Questioning her parent's authority quickly led into questioning their religion. '' ''She quickly became involved with the Chinese black magic scene, consorting with rogue Taoists, shamans, wise women, and other occult types. She became acquainted with the mythologies and rites of many of the world's religions – from Buddhism and Taoism to Hinduism and Islam – and came to syncrete them together into one ever-evolving religion. Her main concern, however, was not with how she could serve the supernatural, but how it could serve her. Appearance: Charity stands out quite a bit, with her Western features, pale skin, freckled complexion, and flaming red hair. She typically dresses in all black, but wears Western style clothing. Her foreign-ness can be an asset, but can also be a hindrance when trying to blend in; fortunately, with a bit of makeup, a change of clothes, and a black wig she can disguise herself as a Chinese girl easily enough. Personality:'' Charity is extraordinarily stubborn and unfond of admitting wrongness in anything. She brings with her the immaturity of youth, and like many ''xia, ''she is quick-tempered,and quick to intervene in the affairs of others. She can also be quite sly, and uses her status as a foreigner as to get out of (and into) trouble that she might not otherwise be able to: She has been known to pose as the lost daughter of foreign dignitaries and the like. Playstyle: Charity is an expert in all manner of unwholesome magic, much of which can be used to maim or cripple foes. While she has relatively low Fortitude and Breath, she is capable of draining life force from her foes via Steal the Breath and Blood to Blood, allowing her to be somewhat reckless with receiving injury and expending energy. She is quite crafty and sly, and some of her curses require her to obtain a sample of blood or hair from a target before they can be afflicted. Like all Americans, Charity is highly proficient when it comes to horseback riding and the use of firearms. Relationships: Charity is an exotic person to many, and has few close confidants. Heavenly Citation, of all people, has taken the girl under his wing; he admires her blasphemous convictions, and considers her a natural talent. She has developed an awkward teenage romance with fellow outcast Flowering Nightshade, if only either of them could work up the grace to say something.